TRAFFICKING gangs ferrying immigrants into the European Union are tipping off officials so coastguards can pick up their boats.

The smugglers tip off coastguards that boats filled with illegal immigrants are on the way

Gangs are so certain their boats will be picked up they’re even putting less fuel in the tank because naval vessels will pick them up, a former UK immigration manager has revealed.

Search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean are making the job of smuggling immigrants from North Africa into Italy easier and encouraging the illegal trade.

“My understanding is that the facilitators are often phoning up the Italian authorities in advance and saying that boats are on their way,” said Graham Leese, a former special advisor to the EU’s border control force Frontex.

“They are not putting as much fuel in the boats as they usually do because they expect them to be picked up,” he told The Telegraph.

Of the 270,000 migrants who arrived in Europe illegally last year, more than 220,000 of them came through North Africa.

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Italian forces rescued more than 100 immigrants from a Libyan boat earlier this week